Prosecutors pitch mercy for condemned Ohio man

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Cleveland prosecutors say they are not confident they could obtain a death sentence today for a condemned killer facing execution next month.

Assistant Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) County Prosecutor Matthew Meyer tells the Ohio Parole Board that without that confidence, his office can’t recommend that Billy Slagle be executed for the 1987 stabbing death of a neighbor.

Meyer said Monday that the position of the office on capital punishment has changed with the election of new prosecutor Tim McGinty and a new set of criteria are being applied to both old and new cases.

Meyer says the decision to recommend mercy was not meant to diminish the heinous facts of the killing of Mari Anne Pope, stabbed 17 times while two young children she was watching were in the house.